Richardson v. Southern University

• Decision Date: 04 August 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-30732,96-30732
• Citation: 118 F.3d 450
• Parties: 119 Ed. Law Rep. 827 Clifton RICHARDSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY; Sheila R. Evans; Ericka Collins, Defendants-Appellees. Summary Calendar.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 450

118 F.3d 450

119 Ed. Law Rep. 827

Clifton RICHARDSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY; Sheila R. Evans; Ericka Collins Defendants-Appellees.

No. 96-30732

Summary Calendar.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Aug. 4, 1997.

Clifton Richardson, New Orleans, LA, pro se.

Suzanne E. Quinlan, LA Dept. of Justice Litigation, Baton Rouge, LA, David Glen Sanders, Assistant Attorney General, Baton Rouge, LA, for Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

Before DAVIS, EMILIO M. GARZA and STEWART, Circuit Judges.

STEWART, Circuit Judge:

This case presents the question of whether Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College (Southern) and its Board of Supervisors are entitled to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution. Clifton Richardson, Sr., sued Southern and two students for alleged federal civil rights violations and state-law defamation and false imprisonment. Richardson eventually dropped his claims against the two students. ¹ Construing Richardson's suit as one against Southern's Board of Supervisors, the district court granted Southern's motion to dismiss, holding that Richardson's suit was barred as a matter of law under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Richardson appeals. Southern's Board of Supervisors has filed a motion to dismiss this appeal on the ground that sovereign immunity bars Richardson's federal and state-law causes of action. Richardson filed a motion for leave to supplement the record.

Although we have held that a number of governmental bodies within Louisiana are entitled to sovereign immunity, ² we have yet to consider whether Southern and its Board of Supervisors enjoy such immunity from suit. Today we hold that they do. We therefore dismiss Richardson's appeal and deny as moot his motion to supplement the record.

BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Richardson was charged by University police with two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery, obscenity, and two counts of simple assault. Sheila Evans and Ericka Collins were the complainants. A student disciplinary hearing before the University Judiciary Committee was held on October 27, 1992; Evans and Collins participated in the hearing. The Committee concluded that Richardson was guilty of the charged offenses and recommended expulsion as the proper penalty for Richardson's violations. Richardson was informed of these facts by letter dated October 29, 1992. Richardson's administrative appeal was denied on March 30, 1993.

On April 4, 1995, Richardson (proceeding pro se) brought an in forma pauperis § 1983 suit in federal court against Southern University and the two students who participated in the disciplinary hearing. Richardson alleged due process violations in his student disciplinary hearings, verbal abuse from a faculty member, false information on teacher certification by a staff member, denial of a fair and reasonable recommendation concerning his job performance, false arrest, and cruel and unusual punishment. He also asserted state-law causes of action for defamation and false imprisonment against Southern and defamation against students Evans and Collins. Richardson sought $1,700,000 in compensatory damages and $3,000,000 in punitive damages. ³

Southern University (represented by the Louisiana Department of Justice) filed a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that Richardson's § 1983 and state-law false imprisonment causes of action were barred by sovereign immunity and that Richardson's state-law defamation action was time-barred. ⁴ The district court, treating Richardson's suit as one against Southern's Board of Supervisors, agreed with Southern and dismissed all of Richardson's claims. This timely appeal followed. ⁵

DISCUSSION

Southern's Board of Supervisors contends that we should dismiss this appeal because Richardson's federal and state-law claims are barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. ⁶ We agree.

I. ELEVENTH AMENDMENT IMMUNITY

We have shaped the contours of Eleventh Amendment immunity to comport with the common-sense notion that a plaintiff cannot avoid the sovereign immunity bar by suing a state agency or an arm of a State rather than the State itself. ⁷ " 'The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution,' " we have observed " 'bars suits in federal court by citizens of a state against their own state or a state agency or department.' " Delahoussaye v. City of New Iberia, 937 F.2d 144, 146 (5th Cir.1991) (quoting Voisin's Oyster House, Inc. v. Guidry, 799 F.2d 183, 185-86 (5th Cir.1986)); see also Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 100-02, 104 S.Ct. 900, 907-08, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984). Thus, even though Richardson did not name the State of Louisiana as a defendant in this case, Richardson's suit may nonetheless succumb to Eleventh Amendment immunity if the State is the real party in interest. Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 653, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 1350, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974); Ford Motor Co. v. Department of Treasury, 323 U.S. 459, 464, 65 S.Ct. 347, 350, 89 L.Ed. 389 (1945).

We have taken a case-by-case approach to determining whether a State is the real party in interest in suits brought against entities which appear to be alter egos of that State. In particular, we have said that " '[a] federal court must examine the particular entity in question and its powers and characteristics as created by state law to determine whether the suit is in reality a suit against the state itself.' " Farias v. Bexar County Bd. of Trustees for Mental Health Mental Retardation Servs., 925 F.2d 866, 874 (5th Cir.) (quoting Laje v. R.E. Thomason Gen. Hosp., 665 F.2d 724, 727 (5th Cir.1982)), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 866, 112 S.Ct. 193, 116 L.Ed.2d 153 (1991). Six factors guide our determination of whether Southern and its Board of Supervisors are arms of the State of Louisiana, and they are as follows:

(1) whether the state statutes and case law characterize the agency as an arm of the state;

(2) the source of the funds for the entity;

(3) the degree of local autonomy the entity enjoys;

(4) whether the entity is concerned primarily with local, as opposed to state-wide problems;

(5) whether the entity has authority to sue and be sued in its own name; [and]

(6) whether the entity has the right to hold and use property.

Delahoussaye, 937 F.2d at 147. ⁸

Before turning to these factors, however, we first address whether sovereign immunity bars Richardson's federal and state-law claims. As to Richardson's § 1983 claim, it is well established that only upon a showing that Congress expressly intended to abrogate sovereign immunity may we bypass the sovereign immunity inquiry in suits against States or their agencies. See Quern v. Jordan, 440 U.S. 332, 340-45, 99 S.Ct. 1139, 1144-47, 59 L.Ed.2d 358 (1979); McDonald, 832 F.2d at 906 n. 7. Congress has not expressly waived sovereign immunity for § 1983 suits. Quern, 440 U.S. at 340-45, 99 S.Ct. at 1144-47; Voisin's Oyster House, 799 F.2d at 186. Richardson's § 1983 suit is therefore subject to the Eleventh Amendment bar.

The applicability of Eleventh Amendment immunity to Richardson's state-law claim presents a slightly different question. ⁹ In Hughes v. Savell, 902 F.2d 376 (5th Cir.1990), we held that the plaintiff's state-law claims against an employee of the State of Louisiana were barred by sovereign immunity. We analyzed Louisiana case law pertinent to the plaintiff's state-law based negligence cause of action and reasoned that despite the plaintiff's creative attempt at repackaging the nature of his suit, the plaintiff's claim was against the State of Louisiana and not the named defendant acting in his individual capacity. Id. at 378-79. Under these circumstances, we concluded that Eleventh Amendment immunity "bars such a suit in federal court since the action seeks recovery from the state based on the violation of state common law by the state's agent." Id. at 379.

In this case, we need not engage in the Hughes analysis because Richardson has not sued any official from Southern University. Rather, Richardson's state-law claims are against the University qua University. Accordingly, because Louisiana has not waived its sovereign immunity for suits brought in federal court, ¹⁰ Richardson's state-law claims are also subject to the Eleventh Amendment bar.

In short, Richardson's federal and state-law claims rise and fall together. And fall they must.

II. SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY AND ITS BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ARE ENTITLED TO ELEVENTH AMENDMENT IMMUNITY

We first note a certain tension in the application of the Delahoussaye factors to cases involving Louisiana state universities. For purposes of analyzing Southern's claim to Eleventh Amendment immunity, Southern as an entity in and of itself cannot be meaningfully distinguished from Southern's Board of Supervisors, for the Board is the operative arm of the University. Therefore, in Laxey and Delahoussaye, we analyzed the functions of the governing board of the University of Southwestern Louisiana in our determination of whether the University was entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity. Laxey, 22 F.3d at 623; Delahoussaye, 937 F.2d at 147-48.

This case, however, is not as straightforward as Laxey and Delahoussaye because (1) Richardson sued Southern University, yet the district court characterized the suit as one against Southern's Board of Supervisors, and (2) the Board of Supervisors filed the motion to dismiss this appeal. Because our analysis of Eleventh Amendment immunity is grounded in state law and because (as our analysis below demonstrates) Southern and its Board of Supervisors are viewed as one Now to the merits of Southern's Eleventh Amendment immunity claim. Although we have held that the University of Southwestern Louisiana is an arm of the State of Louisiana and therefore enjoys Eleventh Amendment immunity, Delahoussaye, 937 F.2d at 146-48,...